Chicago Public Library Data Sculpture Information

Maker in Residence Show & Tell: This Thursday February 9th, 6-8pm, 8th Floor,

Harold Washington Chicago Public Library, 400 S. State Street

This Sculpture mirrors the tracks of Chicago’s loop ‘L’ Trains and shows three Chicago neighborhoods, the Loop, Lincoln Park, and East Garfield Park in terms of selected health factors. The project was inspired by Chicago being one of the first major cities in the United States to have publicly accessible data starting in 2009. The open data mirrors the benefit and innovation of the Chicago Public Library, which provides access to many resources including 3D-printing and digital fabrication to the public. All data was gathered from publicly accessible city data (2010 is the most recent year, which was the year of the last major census that comparable data across all health factors exists) and visualized through the sense of sight and touch with 3D-printing at the maker lab.

The visualization shows trends rather than granular data and should therefore be interpreted as a general overview. The metrics include life expectancy (over the past three decades), rate of diabetes, per capita rate of homicide and per capita income. These factors were chosen because of their high impact on one’s health as well as their ability to be changed. The Chicago Public Library has compiled a list of resources within the library's collection to help those with diabetes for this project.